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Use this document with
the glossary
Beginner’s guide to
Money and shopping
8.3 Saving and donating
This activity will help you save money on your shopping, utilities, insurance and
more, donate online to your favourite charity or raise funds for a good cause.
What will I learn?
• How you can shop for less and compare prices on important purchases
• How to find the best deals on utilities and insurance
• How you can donate or raise funds using the Internet
www.bt.com/freedigiguides
A helper should take you
through this guide
How do I do it?
Be safe! If you’re using this hand-out on a
shared or public computer, remember to:
• Log on using a ‘strong password’:
one that includes upper and lower case
letters, numbers, and isn’t something
that someone else could guess.
• Never share or write down your
password.
• Log out when you’re finished.
The web links referred to throughout this
document can be found in the Useful Links
section at the end.
How can I shop for less?
1.
Shopping online is convenient, and it can also
save you money. You don’t have to visit every
online shop yourself: there are sites that will
help you find the best price.
2. You will need to register with MySupermarket to follow this part of the guide if you want to. Use the suggested guides in Top tips to do this safely.
3. You can find the best place to buy your food
and grocery shopping, based on the items and
brands you prefer:
• Go to the MySupermarket web link and on
the home page click on the ‘Need Help’
button. Type ‘how does mysupermarket
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2 Money and shopping: Saving money online
work’ into the help box and press return.
Different browsers may open the help
in different ways and you may need to
close a tab, page or click on a button to
close the help window to return to the
MySupermarket pages.
• On the home page, click on ‘Start saving’
• Using the department tabs (eg ‘Bakery’ or
‘Drinks’), find a few items you’d normally
buy, and click to add them to
your trolley.
• As you add items, you will see the costs at
each of the major supermarkets. You could
do this for your whole shop and see how
much you can save.
• If you have registered with MySupermarket,
you can click on checkout to purchase your
shopping.
How can I compare prices on important
purchases?
4. If you want to buy a product which is widely available from many shops, you can search online for the best deal:
• On the Google home page, search for ‘big
button phone’
• On the results page, note that a Shopping
link has appeared under the search box. This
only appears when Google thinks you might
be shopping for something.
• Click the Shopping link.
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8.
Shopping results for BT Big Button phone
• Reviews of both the product and the seller
are available to help your decisions.
• You can select sellers who offer free shipping
or will offer refurbished / used items.
Go to the comparethemarket web link. On the
home page you’ll see just some of the many
things that you can save money on using a site
like Confused.com:
• Under ‘Home insurance’, click on ‘Get a
quote’.
• At the top you’ll see the steps you need to go
through.
5. If you click on an item, you see more information. This includes prices, where the item can be bought and reviews of the product
• You have the ability to add it to a shortlist so that you can easily review items you want
to consider.
information about yourself and other
drivers, including when they got their
licence, any driving offences, their
employment, and your existing no-claims
bonus if you have one.
• You’ll need to enter your personal
information if you want to explore the rest of
the process.
You don’t need to buy any insurance when you
get your results.
If you enter any personal information using a
shared or public computer, close your browser
program once you have finished.
6. When you click to go to a shop’s website:
• Make sure the price is the same as shown in
the Google search.
• Make sure you can trust the site (Beginner’s
guide Shopping and auctions can help you).
9. Price comparison sites can also help you save
money on your utilities, such as gas, electricity
and broadband:
• To get the right quote you’ll need your utility
bills for the last whole year or your annual
energy statement, a yearly summary from
your gas or electricity supplier telling you
how much you’ve used that year and how
much this cost.
How can I find the best deals on utilities
and insurance?
7. Renewing your car or home insurance can feel
like a lot of work, but price comparison
websites can help here as well:
• To renew your insurance you’ll need to have
some information ready:
-Details of your car or house and contents.
-For car insurance, you will need
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3 Money and shopping: Saving money online
10.Go to the uSwitch web link. On the home page
you’ll see links for different products:
• Click on ‘Gas & electricity’
• Fill in your postcode and email address – your final results will be sent to you by email as a record of what you have found.
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• Click on ‘Compare ….’
• You then fill in further details and will be given a list of possible alternatives.
• You will get the best results if you have your current gas and electricity costs but for an estimate you can guess these as long as you repeat the exercise using real values before you switch.
How can I donate to charity online or raise
funds for a good cause?
11.The Internet is a vital tool for many charities,
from small, local good causes to national and
international organisations. If there is a cause you want to help or a fundraiser you would
like to support, register with BT MyDonate and donate online.
BT MyDonate web page: search for a charity
12.What if you’re fundraising for a charity?
BT MyDonate can help you here as well:
• You can join up to an existing charity event,
or set up a web page for your own challenge,
and send your friends and family a link to
your page so they can sponsor you online.
• Visit the BT MyDonate web link to donate
online or help others donate and support
your own efforts.
BT MyDonate web page
• BT MyDonate is a not-for-profit service
from BT. Registering to use MyDonate is free
and takes just a few minutes. Every penny
(excluding credit and debit card charges)
goes to the charity and BT will even collect
Gift Aid on their behalf.
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4 Money and shopping: Saving money online
BT MyDonate web page: start fund-raising
Never shop online where your personal
information will be seen or heard by others. Always
close your browser program after using
a shared or public computer to shop online.
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Quiz yourself
• How do you add items to your shopping basket
on MySupermarket?
• How do you check to see which supermarket
would be the cheapest place to shop?
• How can you sort the results in a Google
shopping search?
• What information do you need to have to be
able to use a price comparison website?
Try your new skills
• Go back to MySupermarket and explore using
the shopping basket. See how you can use the
features to ‘swap and save’ or ‘save calories’.
• Go back to comparethemarket.com web site
and see what else you can save money on. Look
at moneysavingexpert.com for another site that
offers the opportunity to save.
• Use a search engine to find some other
price comparison websites and see how each
one works.
Write down any notes that will help you:
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My learning checklist
Where next?
• Find your insurance and utility details and
complete the process on a price comparison
website to see how much you could save.
o I can find the cheapest supermarket for my
weekly grocery shop.
o I can use the Internet to compare the price of
a big item at different stores.
o I can search for the best deal on insurance
• Register with MySupermarket and, using your
last till receipts, work out the cheapest place to
shop.
o I know how to donate to my favourite charity
• Use Google shopping the next time you need to
make a big purchase for your home.
or a utility.
online or sponsor someone who is fundraising.
Top tips
• Set aside some time to get familiar with price
comparison sites.
• Use more than one price comparison site – no
single site provides information on all insurers.
• Some companies don’t take part in price
comparison sites, so remember to go direct to
any you don’t see listed.
• You can also save on your energy bills by using
energy-saving products at home. Go to the
Energy Saving Trust web link and csearch for
‘tools and calculators’ for extra money saving
tips. Explore what else you can find to help you
save energy. You can also return to the uSwitch
home page again and explore the ‘Energysaving products’ link under ‘Utilities’.
• Read the details of the suggested cover or
utility deal carefully, including the length of
any contract. If you’re not sure, call the insurer
or utility company to discuss the deal before
you buy.
Write down any notes that will help you:
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Useful
Useful Links
Links
You
wantwant
to use these
linksthese
in your session:
Youmay
may
to use
links in your session:
Explore the parts of a computer:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Parts-of-a-computer
Google:
Watch a video about turning off your computer:
http://www.google.co.uk
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Parts-of-a-computer
Watch a video about changing your desktop background:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/change-your-desktop-background-wallpaper
MySupermarket:
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk
Comparethemarket:
http://www.comparethemarket.com
uSwitch:
http://www.uswitch.com
Energy Saving Trust:
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
BT MyDonate:
http://www.bt.com/mydonate
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